Dec. 22 NHL History
1974: Phil Esposito becomes the sixth player in NHL history with 500 goals when he scores twice in the second period for the Boston Bruins in a 5-4 victory against the Detroit Red Wings at Boston Garden. Esposito scores a shorthanded goal at 4:46 and a power-play goal at 6:49 of the second period to reach the milestone, joining Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Maurice Richard, Frank Mahovlich and Jean Beliveau.
1979: The Philadelphia Flyers extend their undefeated streak to an NHL-record 29 games (20-0-9) with a 5-2 victory against the Bruins at Boston Garden. The Flyers surpass the previous mark of 28 games without a loss set by the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens. They extend their streak to 35 games (25-0-10) before losing to the Minnesota North Stars on Jan. 7, 1980.
1990: Paul Coffey of the Pittsburgh Penguins becomes the second defenseman in NHL history with 1,000 points in his career. He reaches the milestone with a second-period assist on a goal by Kevin Stevens during a 4-3 win against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.
1993: Dean Evason scores a shorthanded goal at 3:20 of overtime to give the Dallas Stars a 3-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks at Arrowhead Pond. It’s the first shorthanded goal scored in overtime since the NHL adopts the five-minute overtime period in 1983.
1996: Brett Hull joins his father, Bobby Hull, in the NHL’s 500-goal club when he scores three times for the St. Louis Blues in a 7-4 victory against the visiting Los Angeles Kings. It looks like Brett Hull gets his 500th goal 20 seconds into the third period, but it’s taken away about five minutes later when video shows the puck actually goes into the net off the leg of teammate Stephane Matteau. No matter: Hull beats goaltender Stephane Fiset at 10:25 to complete his hat trick and become the 24th player in NHL history to score 500 goals. Brett and Bobby Hull are the first father-son tandem to each score 500 goals.
Brett Hull’s milestone goal comes exactly 25 years after the 28th (and final) hat trick of his father’s NHL career. Bobby Hull scores three times in the Chicago Blackhawks’ 4-1 victory against the California Golden Seals in Oakland. He becomes the first player in NHL history with 28 hat tricks by scoring twice in the first period and once in the second against goaltender Gilles Meloche.
2002: Ron Francis joins Wayne Gretzky as the only players in NHL history with 1,200 career assists when he sets up Jeff O’Neill’s goal midway through the third period of the Carolina Hurricanes’ 1-0 victory against the visiting Stars. Francis finishes his NHL career with 1,249 assists, second to Gretzky’s 1,963.
2016: Jaromir Jagr of the Florida Panthers passes Mark Messier for No. 2 on the NHL’s all-time scoring list.
The 44-year-old forward moves into second place, trailing only Wayne Gretzky (2,857 points), with a third-period assist on a goal by Aleksander Barkov that gives him 1,888 points. Defenseman Michael Matheson’s shot from the point hits Jagr and caroms into the right circle, where Barkov controls it and beats Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask.
After a video review confirms the goal, the Panthers present him with a gold stick. The only thing that mars Jagr’s big night is that the Bruins win the game 3-1.
“I was dreaming about something else,” Jagr says. “I thought I was going to score beautiful goal, beautiful assist, and we’re going to win the hockey game. Obviously, it didn’t go the way I wanted it to go.
